Paleontology

Climate

Dueling dates for a huge eruption reignite the debate over dinosaurs’ death

New dating techniques for the Deccan Traps volcanic eruptions disagree on whether they were the main culprit in the dinosaurs’ demise.

Paleontology

A deer-sized T. rex ancestor shows how fast tyrannosaurs became giants

A newly found dinosaur called Moros intrepidus fills a hole in the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs, helping narrow when the group sized up.

Animals

A rare, ancient case of bone cancer has been found in a turtle ancestor

A 240-million-year-old fossil reveals the oldest known case of bone cancer in an amniote, a group that includes mammals, birds and reptiles.

Animals

Giant pandas may have only recently switched to eating mostly bamboo

Giant pandas may have switched to an exclusive bamboo diet some 5,000 years ago, not 2 million years ago as previously thought.

Paleontology

Tiny eyes make a bizarre, ancient platypus-like reptile even weirder

An ancient oddball marine reptile had teeny-tiny eyes, suggesting it probably used senses other than sight to catch food.

Animals

Cryptic remains of tiny animals have turned up in an Antarctic lake

Researchers were surprised to find vestiges of what appear to be tiny animals in mud from Antarctica’s ice-covered Lake Mercer.

Paleontology

A four-legged robot hints at how ancient tetrapods walked

Using fossils, computer simulations and a life-size walking robot, researchers re-created how an early tetrapod may have made tracks.

Astronomy

These 2018 findings could be big news — if they turn out to be true

Discoveries about fossils, the Big Bang and more could shake up the scientific world – if they turn out to be true.

Paleontology

Pterosaurs may have been covered in fur and primitive feathers

A new study provides evidence of plumelike structures in ancient flying reptiles.

Paleontology

More plants survived the world’s greatest mass extinction than thought

Fossil plants from Jordan reveal more plant lineages that made it through the Great Dying roughly 252 million years ago.

Earth

Greenland crater renewed the debate over an ancient climate mystery

Scientists disagree on what a possible crater found under Greenland’s ice means for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.

Oceans

Volcanic eruptions that depleted ocean oxygen may have set off the Great Dying

Massive eruptions from volcanoes spewing greenhouse gases 252 million years ago may have triggered Earth’s biggest mass extinction.